Refrigerator attachment



CAR-L F. STIEL, OF ST. IPAUL, MINNESOTA.

REFRIGERATOR ATTACHMENT.

Application led July 25,

T0 all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I. CARL F. Srinr., a citizen of the United States, residing at St.Y Paul, in the county of Ramsey and State of Minnesota, have invented a new and useful Refrigerator Attachment, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to refrigerator attachments and the object is to provide a light and efHcient device, readily applied to any refrigerator or ice-box for the purpose of economizing on ice by obtaining the maximum amount of cold air under the bottom of the boX and thereby increasing the efficiency of the refrigerator.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional elevation of the lower portion of a refrigerator through its drip pipe and showing my device.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional elevation of the lower end of a refrigerator drip pipe and its air trap.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged elevation of the water defiector used in my device.

F ig. 4 is an elevation of the evaporating tube of my device showing the upper portion in section.

Referring to the drawing by reference numerals, 5 designates the floor of a room in which is shown a refrigerator of the usual form having side walls 6, rear wall 7, front wall 8 with a door 9 and bottom 10. The latter as well as the walls may be hollow and filled with material 11 of a nonconductive character to heat. The boX is formed as usual with a large chamber 12 having shelves (not shown) for holding ice and groceries, etc.. and a lower chamber 13 having a door 13a for the inserting and removing of a dripping pan 14 into which the water from the melting ice drips through the usual tube 15 into the air trap 16 and thence down.

Trap 16 is usually of an inverted cone shape suspended from pipe 15 by means such as spring arms 18 which hold the upper edge 16a of trap 16 at a height slightly above the lower end of pipe 15 (see Fig. 2). The water coming down through said pipe maintains a level at the edge 16a and prevents air from passing through pipe 15. Continued dripping of water causes it to overiow the trap, run down the outside Specification of Letters latent.

Patented July 4, 1922.

1921. Selal N0. 487,561.

surface 16h of the trap and drip ofl" at point 16C.

Heretofore this water has been removed either with the pan 14 through door 13 or the pan is given an outlet tube 17 which constantly leads the water into a drain pipe 1'?a fixed in the floor 5.

In my device the water dripping from point 16c drops on a sheet metal cone 19 having radial corrugations 20 and is suspended by vertical arms 21 having veach a hook 22 at its upper end for engaging over the upper edge of a flexible canvas tube 24 constructed and coacting with cone 19 in the following manner.

Tube 24 is made of canvas or other reticulate heavy fabric fitted loosely over a light compression coil spring 25 of predetermined length and a ring 23a formed at each end thereof. The fabric is doubled over said rings and stitched as at 26.

Cone 19 is suspended by its arms 21 within said canvas tube as shown in Fig. 1, the tube being placed with its bottom end resting on bottom 14a of pan 14 and its upper end against bottom 10 of refrigerator, the spring 25 being more or less compressed between said bottoms, is held firmly in place and surrounds the air trap 16 at lower end of drip pipe 15.

As already intimated, in small refrigerators or ice-boxes the pipes 17 and 17a are omitted and the pan 14 is removed through door 1??)a and emptied and replaced.

My device operates in the following manner:

After the water from the ice chest has passed down through pipe 15, out of trap 16 and then on. to cone or deflector 19 within tube 24, it splashes off of said cone or runs off its edges onto the absorbent material of which tube 25 is made. The water thus spread saturates said material, which has a comparatively large area. The more or less warm air in the chamber 13 tends to evaporate the diffused water on tube 25, and as evaporation requires heat, the latter is absorbed or drawn away from the air in the chamber 13 which being thus cooled keeps the bottom 10 cool and thereby aids in keeping cool the space 12 above it. thereby economizing on ice and also lessening the cost of making the bottom 10 which may thus be made thinner and less expensive than otherwise.

Having thus described my invention what l claim is:

l. ln a device of the class described, a longitudinally compressible tube of absorbent material, yieldable means within the tube for holding it expanded and normally in vertical position about the drip pipe of a refrigerator, with one end in contact with the under side of the bottom of the cooling chamber of the refrigerator and the other end resting upon the bottom of a drip pan below the drip pipe, and means within the compressible tube for spreading the dripping water against the inner side of said tube, for the purpose set forth.

2. rl`he structure specified in claim l, said expanding means in the tube comprising a coil spring of about the same diameter as the inside of the tube and having at each Y end a ring secured to the adjacent edge of the tube.

3. The structure specified in claim l, said water spreading means consisting of a hollow cone suspended concentrically within the tube and almost of the same diameter as the inner side of the tube.

t. The structure specified in claim 1, said flexible tube having its main body made of reticulate soft material.

5. The combination with a refrigerator having itscooling chamber bottom spaced above its footing, whereby a comparatively air-tight chamber is formed under said cooling chamber, a drip pipe extending from the cooling chamber down .into the air chamber, a vertically compressible frame spring-held within said airl chamber and about the drip pipe, reticulate material covering the vertical sides of the `frame to Vcatch the water from the drip pipe'and diffuse it for evaporation and thereby absorb heat from the air contactingA with the underside of the bottom of the cooling'chamber.

In testimony whereof I afhx my signature.

CARL F. STIEL. 

